New Will.i.am Obama video
“I think the thing that inspires me most about Barack Obama is that he really is going to be the president of the United States. He’s not going to be the president of the top ten percent, or the president of the most powerful corporations, or the president of the most powerful lobbyists. He’s gonna be our president. He’s gonna speak for us, ‘cause we put him there.”
February 29th, 2008 at 12:25 pm
Somebody needs to put Hugh on suicide watch…that many black folks in control, hide the guns, pills and ropes!
February 29th, 2008 at 12:26 pm
One question to ask any of those folks in the video — Name one accomplishment of Barack Hussein Obama….betcha none can do it.
February 29th, 2008 at 12:26 pm
The contras between Hillary videos from her supporters do show the generational divide.
February 29th, 2008 at 12:30 pm
bb: LOL. Hugh better watch with the sound off. Too people talkin’ that es-pan-youl!
February 29th, 2008 at 12:32 pm
Obama has accomplished what the GOP said could never happen; motivate young people to get involved.
When the GOP loses this year, it will boil down to one thing; absolute arrogance…it happened on the fed level and is now happening in states like GA where the party finally got control, but immediately starts acting like big tax and spend libs. Georgia’s GOP is in the process of passing the largest tax increase in state history along with promoting numerous other big tax proposals.
Maybe those of us who tried to influence GOP policy will have new life after November and start immediately to build a new base of 18-35s for the party…we’ll see.
February 29th, 2008 at 12:36 pm
Bart
Did you see the Larry Craig video?
February 29th, 2008 at 12:42 pm
John,
Yes. Are you suggesting that is how the GOP is reaching out to young voters (I’m not disagreeing with you, just acknowledging how ludicrous the GOP looks to most as it wanders aimlessly with nobody to provide a compelling message).
February 29th, 2008 at 12:54 pm
I was not suggesting anything I just thought it was funny!
February 29th, 2008 at 12:56 pm
When the Supreme Court ruled that police must “read the rights” to people they arrest, or lose the testimony those arrested people gave, the police and many others complained about “abuse” of the courts in cases where the people made “voluntary” statements or the police made a minor mistake in reading the rights, etc.
What is forgotten is that police abuse led to the Court ruling. Had they treated all people with respect and “assumed them innocent until proven guilty” even though the evidence was overwhelming in their own eyes, they wouldn’t have gotten that ruling.
Currently, we have a similar situation in the U.S. Congress and both parties have so screwed up the nation that corruption, in and out of politics is rampant. The “Erons” and “Randy Cunninghams” are too common for people not to want “change.” The fact they won’t like the changes they get, doesn’t alter the fact that change is needed.
The fact they won’t like socialism and they won’t be able to pay for it won’t change the fact that they are tired of what we have endured for so long due to centralizing power in Washington.
As a nation, due to the mind of the majority, we can’t go back. We have to have this move forward until it collapses from its own weight. That is why I would not be disappointed if Obama or Hillary are elected, if we have a national health care plan, if we pull out of Iraq, if we stop all defense spending. I won’t like it but I won’t be disappointed because it has to happen due to the way the people are thinking. They have to have their way and let the system collapse before “real change” that works can be initiated.
Of course, it may take a hundred years before that meaningful change takes place but, that is a brief period of time in “history.” It just seems long to us “mortals.”
February 29th, 2008 at 12:56 pm
Bart, you mentioned “arrogance.” Interesting since an article came out a few minutes ago on that.
quote:
Here is a history of arrogance, empire and violence. In the fifth century B.C. Athens had become the most powerful city in the Greek world, energized by a new form of liberty. Every great power makes enemies, and Athens made plenty. Her wealth was envied. Her policy of freedom and shared power for male citizens was feared by conservative leaders in Corinth, Thebes and Sparta.
snip——————
Athens and America are not the same. But lessons applying to one may apply to the other. Once men break with tradition, venturing upon a colossal political experiment, they lose the ability to navigate. They lose their sense of proportion, their sense of right and wrong. It is always dangerous to mistake where you are, to lack the means for recognizing error, to believe that immediate success – or successes earned to date – indicate some newfound path to collective happiness.
The truth might be that an experiment, successful to date, is nonetheless headed for ultimate disaster. Perhaps there is something inherently unstable in the materials, in the people, in the situation of unprecedented success and power. Perhaps the victor is spoiled by his victories; perhaps a nation that innovates cannot grasp the consequences of so many innovations piled one upon the other.
The United States has enjoyed ascendancy for about the same length of time that Athens enjoyed its ascendency. The United States, like Athens, believes that its way of life holds the key to prosperity and liberty for other nations. And the United States, like Athens, is hated for its power. It is debatable whether the Americans have acted as unjustly and brutally as the Athenians. But one thing is certain, given the march of time: The people of the United States have lost their moral center and are in danger of falling into a kind of chaos. This chaos appears in our economic behavior – in our indebtedness and failure to observe the traditional rules of economy. We have also ignored the warnings of our forefathers about foreign entanglements. And we have lost our common sense in matters of family and personal behavior
Financial Sense: Ancient Athens and Modern America
by J. R. Nyquist
February 29th, 2008 at 1:02 pm
Another example of misguided GOP legislation in GA — the state senate just passed a bill that will require elementary schools to track students’ BMI (body mass index) twice a year. UN-F’N-REAL!
February 29th, 2008 at 1:10 pm
“One question to ask any of those folks in the video — Name one accomplishment of Barack Hussein Obama….betcha none can do it.”
“Obama has accomplished what the GOP said could never happen; motivate young people to get involved.”
Thanks for answering your own question. I knew you had it in you.
February 29th, 2008 at 1:12 pm
touche (sort of), but the question refers to accomplishments as a legislator.
February 29th, 2008 at 1:32 pm
The question for McCain supporters:
Name some of McCain’s legislative accomplishments that you agree with.
February 29th, 2008 at 1:51 pm
bb, I would say that getting young voters motivated and involved is far more important than 99% of the legislation passed in this country.
As for good legislation. Citizens of Illinois will be his judge on legislation, as he represents them and their needs.
Is Sen. Stevens (R-AK) a good legislator? He would argue he is, and many Alaskans would agree. Yet, I can’t think of anything other than the pork that he has brought to this state (and he brought lots of it). Is this good or bad?
February 29th, 2008 at 5:06 pm
Sen. Stevens epitomizes the problem with the GOP…it is not good.
I totally agree that motivating young voters is a good thing…I wish the GOP understood this need. But I’m not sure it is good unless there is something beyond being cool as seems to be the case with Obama.
Why are they motivated?
Do they have any idea why they like Obama other than they think he is cool?
February 29th, 2008 at 5:13 pm
“Do they have any idea why they like Obama other than they think he is cool?”
Because they “believe” that he understands them (and their needs) better than the other candidates.
Whether or not this is true is completely beside the point. Perception is reality.
A president’s job (IMO) is to represent and lead the people. When it comes to decisions, hopefully the president has experts at his/her disposal to assist with the decision-making process.
If Obama’s campaign success is any indication of his ability to attract the best and brightest (to work on his campaign), I would say that he would make a fine president. He has surrounded himself with very capable people.
If a president can’t inspire the people around him/her, he/she is operating at a deficit on day one.
February 29th, 2008 at 6:15 pm
The youth believe social security and Medicare won’t be there for them. For some reason they believe that because the Democrats created and expanded the programs decades ago that they will “save” them.
The Democrats will tax the rich and business and “save” the programs. Too bad, since they can’t be saved. Currently we are talking between $53 trillion and $73 trillion in unfunded liabilities and even the Government agencies in charge of them admit they require massive funding increases (122% tax increase for Medicare) and 16% more at least for S.S. but, that is with “growth projections in the work force that keep workers to retirees at 3 to 1 or better.
We can’t grow that much and we can’t tax enough to save them. They will have to be “downsized” and possibly totally reformed in a few years to even keep a moderate level of funding if we are in a currency collapse or depression.
Inflation is going to eat away the buying power of paychecks so much that millions will have to be added to the rolls of middle class that don’t pay income tax.
Obama is popular because he “speaks well.” He acts confident and he certainly appears more professional than the others. Image is very important if you are going to run a “Ponzi scheme” like most government programs are.
In a Ponzi scheme you keep paying current “investors (suckers)” from new “investors (more suckers)” and then you cut and run when it implodes. With inflation as the “gimmick,” you can run these government Ponzi schemes much longer. Buying power keeps dropping but “you get a pay raise.”
February 29th, 2008 at 6:26 pm
“The Democrats will tax the rich and business and “save” the programs.”
That may be the case.
However, I would argue that this is much more appropriate than passing the debt on to our children, which is what Republicans seem to prefer.
February 29th, 2008 at 6:30 pm
The video did have good music!
February 29th, 2008 at 7:45 pm
Not sure what you mean since they can’t do that. There is no way to tax the rich enough to pay for anything. They can put their money in tax free bonds or move out of the nation. If they do stay, and are in business for their wealth then all taxes they pay even on personal income is actually paid by the consumers.
Only a few that don’t have tax lawyers will pay much more. The rest will pay a little more but, if they feel it is more than “fair,” they will find ways to avoid it.
Remember when income tax was 90% on the wealthy? When they dropped the rates on the wealthy by huge amounts they got more tax revenue than when it was 90% because they put more of their money into circulation.
France, for example is losing a millionaire a day that is moving out to lower tax nations. We already have some leaving for other nations. Look what happened in California.
quote:
“When California faced a Mount Everest-sized $14 billion deficit in 2003, one of the major causes for the red ink was the stampede of millionaire households from the state,” says a report called “Rich States, Poor States” by economists Arthur Laffer and Stephen Moore. “Out of the 25,000 or so seven-figure-income families, more than 5,000 left in the early 2000s, and the loss of their tax payments accounted for about half the budget hole.”
Source
You can’t tax the wealthy without risking crashing the economy if they move their wealth to “safe harbors” as they always have done in the past in the majority of cases.
February 29th, 2008 at 8:13 pm
Well, there you go. You’ve just proven that it’s not smart to tax the rich.
Now convince me that it is smart to finance our governmental expenditures with debt.
Let’s say that cutting spending is off the table. I think it’s safe to say we would both prefer this route, although it has its own consequences.
To humor me, let’s say you only have two choices to maintain the budget: taxation or debt.
Which do you choose?
February 29th, 2008 at 8:20 pm
The “envelope” screen reminds me of this video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lXsQrEpI7Cs
February 29th, 2008 at 8:25 pm
It doesn’t matter. We crash either way. That is the point. There is no way out.
It doesn’t matter whether you tax the rich or not. It doesn’t matter if you tax the businesses or not.
It doesn’t matter if you eliminate pork. It doesn’t matter if you cut defense spending.
We can’t grow or tax out of this.
You can let either party be elected and the results will be the same but with possibly a little different timing if we get past this current problem.
Congress is proposing immigrating 67 to 100 million to solve the problem. That won’t work either.
There is no “solution” until after the collapse comes.
February 29th, 2008 at 9:05 pm
quote:
However, the U.S. economy has been dramatically weakened in recent years by outsourcing, globalization, gutting of the manufacturing base and particularly by The Fed’s profligate increases in money supply and credit availability beginning in 2001. Thus, as a consequence, the role of the U.S. as the driver of the World Economy and the U.S. Dollar as the World’s Reserve Currency is likely coming to an end as is the prosperity and, indeed, the very existence of the U.S. middle class.
Consider Paul Craig Roberts’ (former Under Secretary of the Treasury under President Reagan) view of the health of the U.S. Economy:
“It is difficult to know where Bush has accomplished the most destruction, the Iraqi economy or the U.S. economy.
In the current issue of Manufacturing & Technology News, Washington economist Charles McMillion observes that seven years of Bush has seen the federal debt increase by two-thirds while U.S. household debt doubled.
This massive Keynesian stimulus produced pitiful economic results. Median real income has declined. The labor force participation rate has declined. Job growth has been pathetic, with 28% of the new jobs being in the government sector. All the new private sector jobs are accounted for by private education and health care bureaucracies, bars and restaurants. Three and a quarter million manufacturing jobs and half a million supervisory jobs were lost. The number of manufacturing jobs has fallen to the level of 65 years ago.
This is the profile of a third world economy.”
“The Dollar’s Reserve Currency Role is Drawing to an End,” vdare.com, January 25, 2008
Derivatives, Dark Liquidity, and Increasing Systemic Risk
Protection & Profit Potential
by DeepCaster
The part I fear they are right about is the “middle class.”
While many blame the Republicans and they deserve blame, the system put in place that created this mess, was put in place decades ago.
If anything, Bush created the situation that exposed this decades long folly so rapidly that nobody could miss the fact we are in deep trouble.
We have been in decline for decades but, by shifting money away from infrastructure and other things, we have kept an illusion of doing well economically, alive.
February 29th, 2008 at 10:12 pm
quote:
Did Greenspan actually advise the Persian Gulf Arab nations to sever the USDollar peg to their currencies? Yes, he did! In doing so, he shows more Swiss stripes. This man has taken residence where his loyalty originated for perhaps 20 years, in Europe. His second paycheck by the Swiss Uber-bankers did not receive proper scrutiny. What was his objective? Now the Arab sheiks can cut their US$ peg and use Greenspan for political cover. The impact on the USDollar on the downside, and gold on the upside, will be profound. The Petro-Dollar has not received proper press coverage. Has any analyst except the Jackass mentioned the risk to the USDollar from the eventual lost US$ peg, followed by a removal of the Petro-Dollar standard?
Financial Sense:Recharged Gold & Silver Trend
by Jim Willie
I don’t post this because it i s necessarily accurate in its forecasting but to point out how Greenspan may not of every had any real concerns about the U.S. and what he was doing to it.
I point it out to bring attention to the fact that an International elite advise and lead our government officials in ways that serve only the elite.
They are willing to sacrifice the well-being of entire nations if it serves their purposes. They control the corporations, not vice versa. They control the governments indirectly through appointments and advisers and organizations like the CFR that members of both party’s leadership belong to.
Whether it is now or later, we face some very troubling times and even many of our politicians that think they know what is going on will be caught off guard when it happens.
March 1st, 2008 at 2:09 pm
“It doesn’t matter. We crash either way.”
That’s a cop out. I’ll use that as an answer for all questions from now on.
“It doesn’t matter.”
Is that the new Republican slogan for the 2008 election?
March 1st, 2008 at 2:11 pm
I don’t follow them so I don’t really know.
I doubt I will vote for either party since both are bad. You aren’t going to vote for either party are you?
Yet, one of the two will be elected and neither can stop what is coming.
March 1st, 2008 at 2:20 pm
The only thing I’m sure of at this point is that I won’t be voting for McCain.
If Paul runs as an independent I may vote for him, I may vote for Nader, or I may vote for Obama. We’ll see how the rest of the year plays out.
March 1st, 2008 at 2:26 pm
Speaking of McCain. I have noticed several people who we so hateful about his campaign are not saying “we must vote for him.” How can they say one day he is terrible for American and then the next say, “well, I will vote for him because he is “better” than the other candidate. Why not write in a candidate’s name if nothing else if he is so bad you were saying he would ruin the country.
It is like saying I’d rather be murdered slowly because I will live longer (and suffer longer too).
March 1st, 2008 at 2:27 pm
Should have been “are NOW saying “we must vote for him.”
March 1st, 2008 at 2:56 pm
Political parties have become religions. Don’t look too closely at what the scripture says and you’ll do just fine.
March 1st, 2008 at 3:03 pm
That is a good point, Capt. menace
quote:
any system of beliefs, practices, ethical values, etc. resembling, suggestive of, or likened to such a system humanism as a religion
or
any object of conscientious regard and pursuit
===================
A political party can easily become a religion.
March 1st, 2008 at 3:04 pm
“humanism as a religion” was used as an example of the statement, not part of it.